Sunday, December 30, 2007

Happy New Year to You, in Jail

Well, the ornaments are down (and at one point lying shinily on the table waiting to be packed, as you can see), the tree is sadly on the curb, everything is put back together in its nonholiday way.

I guess Christmas is over. And we have no plans for new year's eve.

Why is it so much harder to make friends when you get older? Remember college? You made friends the first day. By the time I'd lived in Seattle five months, I not only had friends that I still have today, but a serious boyfriend, too.

I have been HERE five months and yes, I know people, but were we invited anywhere for Christmas? Or New Year's? That'd be a no. Is it because we're older or because we're repugnant?

However, we can celebrate the fact that our year of not spending is officially coming to a close. We have about $6,700 to our names, which is $6,200 more than we had at the beginning of the year. Plus we hauled our arses across the country, and got established somewhere else. So I think that isn't so bad, all things considered.

Tomorrow I'll do my big goodbye to you all. But in the meantime, if you have been reading this and have never commented, could you give me a shout out? All you have to say is "Dayton Ohio delurking" or wherever you are. If you don't know how to comment, you click on "Post a comment" at the end of my post. Then just log in as anonymous.

I assure you that you are not repugnant. It just is harder to make friends as you get older. I don't know exactly why. I guess it's a matter of proximity, for one thing. And people get so busy, or have lasting friendships, and aren't really in *need* of more friends?

PS I was waiting with bated breath for you to use the "Happy New Year to you -- in jail!" line. It's one of the great ones.

PPS Inspired by you, I watched IAWL *alone* this year and I didn't feel pathetic at all.

Hey June--Haven't commented for awhile, but I've still been here keeping up with you. I'm so sorry you weren't feeling well on Christmas. And your new roots look marvelous (as does the rest of your hair!)Can't wait to check in at your new blog--maybe you'll provide just the inspiration I need to lose these last 15 lbs of baby weight I've been hanging on to (ok I totally needed to lose these 15 lbs before I ever had a baby, but baby weight just sounds so much more justifiable!)

Hey June--Haven't commented for awhile, but I've still been here keeping up with you. I'm so sorry you weren't feeling well on Christmas. And your new roots look marvelous (as does the rest of your hair!)Can't wait to check in at your new blog--maybe you'll provide just the inspiration I need to lose these last 15 lbs of baby weight I've been hanging on to (ok I totally needed to lose these 15 lbs before I ever had a baby, but baby weight just sounds so much more justifiable!)

I am delurking. dcrmom got me hooked on your blog. I love your blog and can't wait for the new year and new blog. Don't tell dcrmom but I occasionally read your blog before hers, not that I am saying your blog is my favorite or anything but....

Hey June- I've commented a few times this fall but haven't in awhile. I get a little nervous that my comment might get edited! Congrats on all your life journies this year. You've done well. Here's to a new chapter in 2008!

This is my first comment ever on blogs, although I have been reading a few over the last couple of months. Of all, I enjoy yours the best - my morning coffee is better with your posts :-)) ... I always wondered how come you don;t have that many comments, I guess many of your readers, like me, are just lurking out there ...

Anyway, looking forward to your health blog (and yeah, when you become famous I'll be saying " I've read her blog ever since Bye Bye buy") - and Happy New Year!

delurking in Chapel Thrill (just up the road). not sure how I got here a few months ago but have been enjoying your blog and have ROFL more than a few times. Good luck with the health blog!

and I agree-don't take the tree down yet! we don't take ours down until after New Year's--which as the parents of a young child and 2 people who want to avoid drunks (and cops) on the road, we also spend at home. Fancy seafood on china and whatever is on TV. whoopee. but at least its sparkley!

(raises hand very slowly)delurking from just outside of Vancouver, Canada. Stumbled on here from a compact group that recommended a good read about someone following the compact 'rules' for one year, needless to say I was not disappointed!

Have been reading daily, never brave enough to comment.

Sad that this blog is ending (going to try the no spending jibe myself in the new year) but I will gladly be lurking the health blog.

Thank you for a wonderful daily read, I cant wait to see what you have in store for 2008!

When I found your blog a few weeks ago I sat for hours reading it from start to finish! First time I've ever read a blog in its' entirety. Entertaining and witty. I look forward to reading about more of your adventures next year!

Lurking since Sept. from a Mountain Top in PA. Someone on the Compact list group sent a link to your blog and I've been a faithful reader since. I've had the same problem where I live making friends. I'm a southern gal from southern VA transplanted up here in Yankee territory since '85 and this particular mtn. in PA since '00. It's a small town thing you are butting your newly dyed head against. I think the small towness has alot to do with not being accepted & not making friends. If you didn't grow up here and have relatives going back at least 3 generations in town(dead or alive), no matter who you know, what club you join, what charitable group you are in, you are still an outsider. Friends are difficult to make once you hit 30...sad but true.Thanks for the chuckles JCC!

Hello again from Valdese, NC. I did't recognize about half of the IAWL quotes, including today's, but hey, I just watched the movie for the first time this month.

I also found your blog when it was recommended at The Compact group. Following The Compact guidelines, I've not bought much NEW this year except a timing belt for the car so it would keep running and a dehumidifier for the basement so things there wouldn't mildew. I'm going to continue in 2008...after I buy a new clothes dryer and some shoes. I've found I don't need most of the things I want. Do you feel the same after this experiment? Will you start buy, buy, buying like you used to do? Will you offer some reflections on the year tomorrow? (in an amusing manner, of course)

What you did, trying to buy NOTHING, would be too hard for me. Congratulations on getting through 2007 with so much more money saved than last year!

As others here, I look forward to your new blog. Will you use June and Marvin or your real names?Elsie

I've read your blog since the beginning. You have made me and many of my friends laugh on a daily basis. Don't give up on making friends. I have a group of friends that became very close just a couple of years ago. We range in age from 33-77 roughly. Most of us hover around in our 60's. We are closer than sisters and love each other and it all started after we were "older". ByeByeBuy June. We love you. Delurking from Michigan.

Oklahoma City delurking. I've been lurking for a few weeks and have only read from January through March so far. I hope you leave this blog up so I can finish reading (and laughing) for a while longer!

lurker from Massachusetts - just found the blog a few weeks ago and read it from start to finish. You are talented and engaging and I hope you post the url for the next blog somewhere soon .... or have I missed something? Happy New Year and congratulations on an amazing achievement - to both of you!

Gray, Maine...delurking. I found you in December and promptly spent an entire night reading from January on. You've had quite a year! I really look forward to reading next year as well. Best of luck in 2008!

Consider me delurked - Harrisburg, PA! I've been lurking since April and cannot get enough of your posts! I often check in a couple times a day at work when I need a little entertainment. Looking forward to reading the health blog in 08!

Francis! You left out Francis. He is 20 of our 40 pounds of cat, and is hard to miss. I will not tell him of your indiscretion. He does not know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass, so I doubt he'll read this and catch on.

Happy 2008 to you too, Bronwyn. Thanks for being a constant commentor. Like the tea.

What a joy to make people laugh -truly an inspiration and fun - Ido the church secretary bit and could relate to things you wrote about -- it can be a hoot! As formaking friends, keep trying - there are people out there just as alone as you - invite them over - I've lived here forever - small town and many times have invited new and even strangers over for a holiday and had a great time.... the same old friends that you've had all your life enjoy meeting new people, too. Reach out - everyone is lonely some of the time.

June! I've read you since the beginning...oh, okay, so I'm a liar! I've only read the blog since August (when you were recommended on my "Compacting" e-group as a "sistah" in the not buying anything new type)and sometimes we talk about you - behind your back, about how we are doing what you are doing as a way of life, and are now going to have our Jubilee Day of shopping and then go back to not spending money. Some of us have wondered how this year has/will have changed you, will you break out into hives when going into Wally World? Will you look at some new toy and say, "I know now that I do not need this" and decide not to spend? Will you enjoy not having so much clutter in your life and deide to continue almost all of your frugal ways? I for one have so enjoyed your blog, and although I know that you are going on to your weight loss (bye/bye/thigh), I hope that you will post here at least one a month and let us know how much of what you have done this year will stick with you and what progress you are still making. Please don't dump these wonderful entries, I'd like to re-read them from time to time. And since I am now known as the Queen of Blubber in the whole of Napa valley, I will be joining you in your weight loss.

Delurking from Wellington, New Zealand :-) Fabulous blog! I've only discovered it recently, and have been doing lots of catch-up reading. Very inspiring. Looking forward to your next blog! All the best for 2008.

Hi June,I am delurking from Saginaw. I am a friend of your extraordinarily attractive and brilliant mother. Reading your blog inspired me to start one - it's called Sanity in Exile and was supposed to describe how I manage not to lose my mind with all that's wrong with the world and my crazy need to try to fix it all - but I only did two entries. Maybe I will pick it up again at some point. I started it on a day I was "supposed" to be writing something academic and I was thinking "this is so boring nobody will read this it doesn't matter if I cite ten or twenty sources or if I just write about my cat because nobody is going to read this and I could be giving myself a facial right this minute." I don't focus well. I love your blog and it has been just the lift I needed to give myself a mental break and just laugh. You have a real gift (from your incredibly brilliant and stunningly attractive mother I presume). Thanks for sharing.

OK, not sure how to transition from that opening line, but I just had to type it.

I am not a lurker but I didn't want the year to end without saying that I am grateful that I found your blog this year, and also to have had the chance to get to know you.

What I loved about "reading you" this year is that you have been very real. You haven't sugar coated the tough things about your year (although you wrote about them with humor that always made me put my coffee down, lest I read and spray coffee all over in my laughter.)

Even though I have never seen you face to face, I could see how this experiment was changing you; growing you up and changing your perspective. The great thing about "change" is that when you face it head, on and are willing to be teachable, it can't help but change those who are around you. You have influenced change.

It was amazing, (as I told my friends about your site, and they told thier friends) to see how your experiment really made us think about how we were spending and why we were spending, and there were many of us who were spurred on to talk about, and take a good look at, our attitude towards money, and change it. If you and Marvie could totally cut spending for a year, how much more could we take our funds and critically examine how we choose to use our funds. What you did was INSPIRE us to be more wise with what we have, not just with money but with other things in life as well.

That is only one lesson I take away from your experiment, I could name others (like how in your experiment your generous heart found ways to express itself without a big price tag; or how to persevere even though life finds you in a moving truck in the middle of TX, etc) but I just wanted you to know that you have taught me (and other's) things that have been more than just a daily laugh on some random blog. And I, for one, am grateful.

It's been a great year! I look forward to reading your new blog tomorrow!

I loved reading your blog everyday. I loved that I could count on you to entertain me. I started making my husband mute the tv to listen as I read your blog to him. Now he claims you as his own. Figures! Thanks for being a bright spot in our day.

Already delurked a couple months ago, but wanted to comment that you are an excellent writer and a funny gal!

Can't wait for the health blog! I can't help thinking (actually, you popped into my head yesterday out of the blue) about how you are really using this blog thing to improve your life/self (from 500 to 6700! that's great) and you don't give up! That's what great! It's would have been so easy to have stopped penny-pinching and posting - so I think you're next health endeavor will be rockin' as well!

For thosse who asked, "Compacting" (based on the Mayflower Compact) is an e-group of people who have agreed not to buy anoything new for a year. Good group, lots of help, 9000 members. Join us at thecompact@yahoogroups.com

Delurking - in Alabama. I have so enjoyed reading your blog. I think you need to combine all your entries and make them into a book - you are a very talented and humorous writer! Your comments make me laugh out loud at times.

It's been great reading your blog this past year. I'm sure you thought I had deserted you, but I have been lurking. Just had a lot going on. I had carpat tunnel in my right wrist, going to physical therapy, had surgery, still wearing the bandage as I am typing this. A friend on a forum I frequent is planning a 6 month freeze on her spending. I told her about your blog and sent her to read. I am planning to visit you at the new place.. you gonna be coming to visit me for some hog brains and eggs?? LOL!! Good luck!!

I read your whole blog in a few hours today. It's 2 a.m. and I have a job interview tomorrow morning. You're a hoot! (I've always wanted to say that). --Jobless in Kuwait (yep, the one in the Middle East)

It's nice to meet you. I was going to start out my comment with 'hey' but since you like complete sentences from kids I figured you'd like them even better for adults. Anyway, I've spent the last three days reading your entire blog and I'm really impressed at your experiment, your moxie, and your willingness to fess up to cheats. Congrats on your new life in the south and I can't wait to subscribe to your new blog. You're talented, funny, and real - the very best combination. No wonder your friends love to give you stuff.

I don't know if you ever get back to check the comments on this blog or if you are so off and running with your new blog you have left this in the dust. But will take a chance and post here anyway.

I found your blog while doing a search on "church secretary". What a hoot!

We have so much in common it's almost freaky!

West coast transplant to east coast...Portland Oregon and SF Bay area in California, now living in Small Town USA in Massachusetts. Big City Girl now living life as a Small Town Girl. Moved due to the hubs work.

Refer to myself as a crow because I like bright and shiny things!

Favorite color is pink!

LOVE CATS although now only have two.

Love to laugh and get the giggles with a good friend - last night when I discovered your blog, and read the entry about Marvin inadvertently being IN the wedding on Cape Cod had me giggling so much I near peed my jammies. (which are bright red flannel with cats, balls of yarn, and kitty foot prints on them...did I mention I was 49 years old...) Also, think of "The Pool Party, your table is ready" and snort coffee.

hi from wauseon ohio! i know this blog is dead but i hope you still check the comments. i only recently found you and have read the whole blog in a few days. very funny! now im off to check out bye bye pie. im excited as i can be!

Geneva, Switzerland delurking. More than a year too late, but I discovered your blog just yesterday and read the whole thing in nearly one go. Thank you so much for the little window into your life, it got me wondering if I really have to spend so much on stuff I don´t really need. Off shopping now. ;)